


chikage & tenma

by floatingcastle



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble, Family, Gen, Humor, Late Nights, RookiesWeek_2021, Tricks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:34:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29119044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingcastle/pseuds/floatingcastle
Relationships: Utsuki Chikage & Sumeragi Tenma
Kudos: 18
Collections: A3! Rookies Week 2021





	chikage & tenma

It’s pitch black outside when Tenma finishes his shoot that day. He blinks, adjusts to the darkness, and takes one glance back at the door closing behind him where a glimpse of bright lights and glamour can still be felt. It swings all the way shut. 

Igawa is waiting with the car. He yawns. 

They arrive at the dorms, Tenma says goodbye to Igawa and the public face of Tenma Sumeragi. He runs an idle hand through his messy-on-purpose hair. Gel crunches between his fingers. 

The exhaustion shows in every heavy step he takes toward the kitchen. The darkness forces ghosts and monsters into the corners of his vision. He tries to be brave. A phantom mockery of Yuki floats onto his shoulder and makes a scathing comment that solidifies his resolve. 

His eye catches on someone rifling through the cabinets. 

He prays to Buddha and God and his bansai. 

A looming shadow. The silhouette of a wide pair of shoulders. Almost most certainly and definitely the grim reaper waiting to wrench out his soul and send him to Hell. The creature takes a step back and turns around. 

“—Welcome home, Tenma.” 

“—Please don’t kill me!”

Their voices bump elbows, crossing over each other in the air, and it takes Tenma a few seconds more to realize that it’s… just Chikage. 

He clutches his heart and heaves out the breath he’s holding. Chikage tilts his head, glasses glinting under the moonlight, and smiles. 

“Sorry for scaring you.” 

“No! I-I wasn’t scared, you just surprised me a little bit. Sorry if I scared you, Chikage-san.”

“I’m afraid I’ll never recover. Your voice sounded just like my late grandmother and I thought you’d been possessed by her ghost.”

Tenma, of course, speedruns a mental breakdown about that observation until Chikage reveals his hand by laughing and saying he’s never even met his late grandma. 

“Oh, thank god.”

“That said, I don’t know if you heard me the first time, but… Welcome home, Tenma. It’s late and you have school tomorrow, don’t you? Kids should go to bed.”

He raises an objection at that, mumbling that he has a job, but Chikage just keeps on smiling. A hand lands in his hair, ruffling it. It’s surprisingly affectionate for what he expects from Chikage. 

“Sure. And, just to soothe your nerves… I’m sure that I’m the scariest thing you’ll find in the dark corners of Mankai. So I’ll keep the ghosts and monsters away from you.”

Tenma feels like he’s being made fun of. He squints at Chikage.

“I-I’m not scared of anything like that, okay?! …But, um, thanks.”

He turns away on one heel, putting up a brave front, and marches back to his room while trying not to wake Yuki’s “beauty sleep.” 

The reliable silhouette of Chikage’s shoulders. 

The firm weight of his calloused palm.

The cold, smooth metal of his ring. 

All of these details linger in Tenma’s mind as he falls asleep that night, comforted.


End file.
